Football team

A football team is the collective name given to a group of players selected together in the various team sports known as football.

Such teams could be selected to play in a match against an opposing team, to represent a football club, group, state or nation, an All-star team or even selected as a hypothetical team (such as a Dream Team or Team of the Century) and never play an actual match.

There are several varieties of football, notably Association football, Gridiron football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby league, and rugby union. The number of players selected for each team within these varieties and their associated codes can vary substantially. In some, use of the word "team" is sometimes limited to those who play on the field in a match and does not always include other players who may take part as replacements or emergency players. "Football squad" may be used to be inclusive of these support and reserve players.

The term football club is the most commonly used for a sports club which is an organised or incorporated body with a president, committee and a set of rules responsible for ensuring the continued playing existence of one or more teams which are selected for regular competition play (and which may participate in several different divisions or leagues). The oldest football clubs date back to the early 19th century. The words team and club are sometimes used interchangeably by supporters, although they typically refer to the team within the club playing in the highest division or competition.

Football club (GDR)

Football club (short: FC) was a designation for the elite football teams in the GDR (German Democratic Republic, commonly East Germany). They were formed in the mid-1960s as centers of high-level football.

After World War II and the occupation of Germany by Allied forces, a separate football competition emerged in the Soviet-held eastern half of the country. The term "FC" continued to be used in its traditional sense in West Germany, but eventually became a specialized designation in the east.

Since the introduction of the Sportclub system in the mid-1950s their football departments had dominated play in the DDR-Oberliga. In late 1965 football was granted a special status in the East German elite sports, when the footballing departments were dissociated from the Sportclubs and - under the new designation of football club - were given the same rights as sport clubs.

This special status of the sports clubs and football clubs as the only centers of elite sports led to an establishment of a two-class society in the DDR-Oberliga: The heavily supported and largely professionalized clubs dominated play in every respect, the best Betriebssportgemeinschaften (BSG) were used as a talent pool. Their players were delegated to the big football clubs. After 1954, when the sportclubs were first established, there is just one instance when a BSG won the DDR-Oberliga: BSG Chemie Leipzig were crowned champions in 1964, however, the team had been formed from two dissolved sportclubs the year before. From 1968 to 1991 only football clubs finished in the top 3 of the DDR-Oberliga.